
Rockets
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Everything posted by Rockets
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Heartblock - can you share the documents that have been shared with you from the meeting? What meeting was it? Was it a meeting for Labour members within the LTN area? Are political parties allowed to try to influence the outcome - fine if they are telling people to go and look at the review but not so fine if they are telling people how they should respond - at what point does that become interference?
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Indeed, given the coop of aforementioned Mr.Chicken is "close to the Calton Avenue junction" - as they stated on one of their first posts here - I think we can all determine what Mr.Chicken's objective is....their tongue-in-cheek postings were entertaining to begin with but now appear to be nothing more than a exercise in disruption. Perhaps they might shed their cloak of obtuseness, join the debate properly and tell us what they really think.....;-)
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The challenge that the council has, and why the LTNs are not working, is because whilst car ownership is some of the highest in our part of Southwark the flip side is that the number of local journeys done on foot or by bike is also some of the highest in the borough. So what gives? It suggests that locals are not using their cars for unnecessary journeys yet are being unfairly punished by (many of them) having to live with the displacement caused by these closures. To be fair, if 68% of local journeys were being done or foot or bike in 2018 you can bet that, thanks to Covid, is probably up near the 80% level and you won't get much higher than that no matter what you do. In fact, maybe these measures will actually have an even more negative impact. I have worried for a long time that Lordship Lane is suffering because of the increases in traffic. Now it never was the quietest of roads but the pollution is becoming horrendous with the traffic queuing along its length with the displaced traffic. I suspect a lot of those 68% were walking journeys to and from the Lane and at what point do people no longer go to shop or eat there because of the pollution?
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Also as Otto2 was posting earlier some people with cargo bikes currently stored in their houses would be very keen to use cycle hangers but the challenge is, given the huge waiting list for cycle hangar spaces, can the council devote (what looks like) three of 4 normal cycle storage spots in a hangar to a single cargo bike - there isn't the infrastructure in place to aptly support demand for normal bikes yet alone cargo bikes. Modal shift will never amount to anything more than low single digit percentages if councils don't wake up to the fact that stick alone won't make it happen - there has to be some carrot. Every time I see a pro-LTN twitter groups posting pictures and videos from the Townley Road junction of children on bikes I do chuckle and think to myself that all it is validating is that modal shift only happens for those who attend some of the most expensive private schools in the country (where finding places to store bikes at school is not an issue) and are able to cycle from some of the largest houses in London (which also have no problem storing bikes).
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It is also very telling that in the Netherlands, despite their love of the bike, they own more cars per capita than we do in the UK.
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The council has monumentally failed when it comes to the support infrastructure to enable modal shift - is it any surprise only 3% of the 68% of journeys locally were done on bikes back in 2018? No, because look at Lordship Lane - very few places to secure a bike and the council could, and should, have been doing more to provide the infrastructure to support it. It's embarrassing. The council got so side-tracked by obsessing over trying to close Dulwich Village to traffic that they took their eye off the ball. Look at how much money they have spent in the village to try to close it to traffic yet people across the wider Dulwich area have been crying out for infrastructure to be put in place so they can store bikes. Over the last 18 months of the pandemic the council's efforts to install bike storage infrastructure has been beyond pathetic.
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LTN BooHoo Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Think outside the box and encourage the council to > do more not less. Given the way they have mishandled the existing LTN closures I am not sure they should be encouraged or entrusted to do more. In fact I am not sure many would trust them to do anything anymore. Don't forget the ludicrous plans for Peckham Rye and other areas that they had to scrap at the beginning of this debacle. It was interesting when our councillors held their ward meeting on the issues, someone said that they were unhappy about having to live with the displacement and one of our councillors said: "Let's discuss whether we can install measures on your road". It seems the preferred council solution to the chaos these measures cause is to pass it onto someone else. Maybe this can be the council's new slogan....Southwark...making someone else deal with the problem?
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An update from One Dulwich. One Dulwich Campaign Update | 24 May Dear all, The Dulwich Review Still no rush to fill in the Dulwich Review, which closes online on 11 July. None of the promised supporting data has so far materialised, and some of it won?t be available for weeks. There are two more online meetings organised by the Council (yesterday?s meeting was just about the basic aims of the Dulwich LTNs) on Wednesday 26 May at 7pm, and Saturday 19 June at 2pm. Tickets are free, but you need to book via the link above. We have been looking carefully at the survey, and are raising a number of serious problems with Southwark Council. These include: No specific options put forward for Dulwich Village junction (for example, ANPR cameras) if you want a different solution. This is not what the Council promised. The high risk of duplicate entries and fraud, as surveys can be completed using just a name, email address and postcode (but no house number). The ?unique identifier? appears to have no purpose ?? we have heard of multiple printed copies with different ?unique identifiers? sent to single-person households. Data protection and whether questions are age-appropriate: there is no minimum age for filling in the survey and under 16s are encouraged to respond. How will Southwark know whether answers are from a 15-year-old or a two-year-old? Traffic displacement: there are no specific questions about the traffic displacement that is badly affecting residents and schoolchildren on roads like Croxted Road, East Dulwich Grove, Lordship Lane, Dulwich Common and Underhill Road We will keep you closely in touch with next steps. Our fighting fund The fighting fund we have set up with the Dulwich Alliance has now reached ?13,184. Please continue to spread the word via social media. Donations are being used to print and distribute leaflets and posters, and to progress our legal advice. Leaflets and posters Please go to www.dulwichalliance.org and click on the LEAFLETS or POSTERS tab if you?d like further copies. Our new leaflet, highlighting the impact of 24/7 closures and excessive timed restrictions on local businesses, is being delivered to 18,000 homes in the Dulwich LTNs area.
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Does anyone know why in 99% of other places the LTN barriers have been made permeable for emergency services yet in Dulwich Village they persist with immovable barriers - what is the rationale behind that - they made the Melbourne Grove barriers permeable? Is it because the grand plans for the "Square" would not be possible if the emergency services need to have access?
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The council is organising some meetings to discuss the closures - the first is this Sunday. Council meetings on the closures: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dulwich-streetspace-review-community-meetings-tickets-153435899907 Community Meetings to discuss the Highways schemes in Dulwich About this event We want to hear from as many people as possible in the local community - what are your views on the current Highways measures in Dulwich Village, East Dulwich and Champion Hill, and what would you like to see in the future? We have scheduled 3 online meetings during the consultation period:- 1. Sunday 23rd May - the council will discuss the highways schemes, our aims and objectives. 2. Wednesday 26th May - we want to hear the views of the public and different stakeholder groups. 3. Saturday 19th June - we will break into smaller groups and look at the issues and challenges in greater detail - so everyone should get a chance to speak. Please register your interest here and provide your email address - the link to the meeting will be sent out on the day and will come from [email protected] (please check your Junk folder)
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This thread seems to be doing more research into the root cause of the problems than the council has ever done! ;-) 68% of local journeys were being done on foot or bike in 2018 and I suggest post-pandemic that that figure is even higher - so clearly the issue does not lie with us locals yet it is us locals who are having to live with the displacement being caused by the sledge-hammer to crack a nut closures installed by the council. If only they had done some proper research to determine what the traffic issues across the area were being caused by and look at measures that could adequately address the problems but, unfortunately, they were allowing themselves to be led by a small group of anti-car protagonists whose sole aim was to close roads to car usage and create car-free/massively reduced zones for the benefit only of those within them. The council's misguided, ill-conceived and executed strategy is backfiring massively.
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Northern I think the issue is that a lot of people don't support these measures as they create even more unacceptable queuing traffic. That's the crux of the issue. There is broad support for measures that would reduce queuing traffic everywhere for everyone - these get nowhere near that unfortunately.
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PollyGlot Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Some local residents had the opportunity to > discuss LTN matters with a Councillor today. This > was none other than Margy Newens, who is Deputy > Community Champion for the South Area. > > One of the first questions presented to her was > "What is the PRIME purpose of the LTN measures?". > > Her emphatic and unequivocal response was "TO > REDUCE TRAFFIC". No mention of pollution!! > > She apparently failed to understand that pollution > would be reduced if electric cars were exempted > from the LTN penalties ( as is the case with taxis > and buses) and that if they were exempt, then that > would accelerate the adoption of electric cars and > bring about rapid reduction in pollution. > > She was unaware that the statistics provided by > Southwark on their website are 20 months out of > date! > > What hope do we have when our community has > representatives like this? We have to frame her response in terms of what the underlying objective for Margy Newens was: To reduce traffic......for her constituents..... It's been clear from day one that that was the only objective and that this was to be achieved by any means necessary - even if that meant that other councillors' constituents had to absorb the displacement. I am glad she has put that out there as if the council cannot prove that this has happened area wide to a significant degree then the scheme will have been a complete failure. One wonders then whether any councillors will admit they were wrong and take actually responsibility for their mistakes - I very much doubt it. The amount of money the council has wasted on this is absurd.
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OMG - has anyone started to fill out the review documents - talk about lose the will to live!? Firstly it re-stats the affirmation that these measures were brought about as part of the Covid response to aid social distancing and then asks a load of leading questions (all of which are linked to the success of such measures) - not one question addresses whether there have been any negative impacts associated with the closures. Astonishing. Of course you can leave comments but they don't measure comments. I started filling it out, trying to be as balanced as possible and then found myself getting more and more annoyed by the blinkered questions as I could see how the council were going to try and manipulate the results. It appears the only way to voice any concern may be to strongly disagree with all the assumptions made in the review.
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The article doesn't explain what the kerbs are and does say that the researchers think the number could be massively higher. Is it just me or do a lot of the Guardian's articles seem to be a little light on detail.....an attention grabbing headline but that's about it, as you read down the article so the headline becomes weaker and weaker. Of course, the point the Guardian or the cycle group researchers who did the research miss is that all those modal filters weren't dropped in at once or caused the type of displacement chaos we are seeing in many areas that have these new ones (like Dulwich). But these articles do little to try to establish what is actually happening and are written from a position of justifying why they shouldn't come out - and that is an important distinction and why they are just part of the pro-LTN propaganda machine. I am still chuckling at the childish and pointed Laurence Fox reference.....;-)
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Come on Ex- you work in the industry and you know that when you read that Guardian article that it is both really clutching at straws and scraping the barrel at the same time isn't it.....25,000 thousand modal filters that include bollards, kerbs, planters and gates......since the 1960s....... Peter Walker's article is clearly manipulated to make the reader think that there are 25,000 LTN like filters in place across the country but the inclusion of kerbs would, no doubt, include any kerbs installed to facilitate a bike lane, or a drop kerb to allow buggies to be pushed across the road - which of course, don't have the same displacement tsunami effect of closing the DV/Court Lane junction...... I think we can safely file that one to the "Peter Walker Propaganda" file....at some point I am hoping even the Guardian editor must have turn to Peter and say...."Peter...really!!!???" ;-) I also love how he drops the name of Laurence Fox in there....just to ram home the anti-LTN supporter trope....
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Some useful info related to Southwark, traffic, LTNs etc
Rockets replied to legalalien's topic in General ED Issues / Gossip
legalalien Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Envelope update - there is nothing on the outside > of the envelope to indicate it's from Southwark or > anyone else, and just says to "The Resident" (with > specific address). Postage paid, 1st class. As > mentioned I thought it was one of those estate > agent "do you want to sell your house" things. My they really seem to be going out of their way to bury this review and try to ensure people miss it. Ironic isn't it that they send out all other comms from the council with their logo plastered all over it.....perhaps this was another one of those council LTN oversights.... It will be very interesting to see how widely this leaflet is distributed....they mess up the first one royally....ahem, perhaps that has always been the plan! -
flippit Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > @rockets > > I'm fascinated your heads-up on the tracking > stickers. But to work surely they would need to > transmit some sort of signal by a device that > required a power source and would that not be > easily seen. If they work them I want one for my > Ribble then if someone takes it, I want to find > it. I got the impression from our friends that these were something the thieves targeting bikes had created rather than them being available (I will ask them though - I believe it had been stuck on the bottom of the frame so was out of sight). You can get GPS tracking devices for bikes but they are deliberately large so they could not be hidden.
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Some useful info related to Southwark, traffic, LTNs etc
Rockets replied to legalalien's topic in General ED Issues / Gossip
I think the unique ref numbers were part of the initial plan when the council were hoping to be able to focus the review on those living within the LTN area only. A lot of people saw through that plan, and remember it was Cllr Williams who referenced the unique ref numbers in emails. It is clear there is still an element of this approach indicated by the blue shading area which I can only presume is the official "review area" and I suspect the residents there will be given a heavier weighting, this eliminating the voices of those living on the displacement routes. The council engagement plan references those on the boundary roads (but nothing beyond) so I suspect they will not be taking the views of those living east of Lordship Lane as strongly as those within the LTN area. This is why they have not distributed/failed to distribute the leaflets beyond the blue shading area. It's clear what they are doing here, the engagement plan is very open ended and we probably won't find out until they present the results of the review bit it does look as if it is now a case of collect as much data as possible to find a way to positively present the results. Legal - does it indicate anywhere on the envelope that it is from the council? -
I honestly don't think the council have the first clue how this review will run. They have created a rod for their own back and I suspect are struggling to work out how they judge whether it stays, goes or gets massively adjusted (or are trying to work out how they spin the monitoring numbers). On a walk today I noticed a lot more of the new green Clean Air For All posters in windows around Dulwich.
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I think the reality is, unfortunately, that if someone wants your bike enough they will get it. I am looking at an Asguard bike store at the moment but it seems from most forums that they will only slow the thieves down or might deter them if they think it will make too much noise. Ground anchors seem to be good to slow them down and definitely worth doing if you go for something like an Asguard. There is also an argument that something like an Asguard attracts thieves as they presume an expensive bike is stored within it. Bikes are very attractive to thieves at the moment. A friend of ours had a cargo bike stolen and, as they had it property marked, when they go it back (it was found in a shipping container with hundreds of other bikes), it still had the tracking sticker on it that the thieves had stuck to it. Apparently they stick them on the bikes to be able to follow them to where they are stored and then go to steal them.
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Maybe it's just reflective of the impact of them in the local area and the fact lots of people have questions and point to raise about them - it is different people starting them each time so not as if some of us usual suspects are creating threads for the sake of it! ;-)
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But Rahx3 the beauty of the forum is that when people stop posting (i.e. the thread runs its's course) then the thread drops down - it's self-policing in it's own way. Lots of the threads, although linked to the same issue, are discussing different elements of it and Admin is good at dealing with those that are truly duplicative.
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Rahx3 they most definitely should but e-bikes and e-scooters do come with a whole host of unique challenges. As someone who has visited Munich a lot I am shocked by the numbers of e-bikes and e-scooters that are left in clusters all over parts of the city - I believe a lot of that was due to rapid re-regulation and a host of operators rushing in to try to make money so hopefully London's approach will be more controlled.
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Very much agree - Inside72 was something else everything a local hostelry should be!
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